Critics give Tarot Sport a B-Side Breakdown of 80 (B-), from 10 reviews at outlets we track. Scores run 60 to 91.
The verdict on Tarot Sport
9 of 10 critics liked it, and they mostly agree.
- Highest 91 The A.V. Club
- Outlier 60 Spin, 20 points below the next-lowest score
- By the numbers The best-reviewed album of Fuck Buttons's career on B-Side Breakdowns, ahead of Slow Focus (78). The top-rated Electronic album of 2009 we've tracked.
| The gist | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The A.V. Club via Wikipediaby Jesse Hassenger | A- | 91 | 2022 | “The A.V. Club digs deep into film, TV, music, games, books and more.” |
| Pitchfork via Wikipediaby Joe Colly | 9.0/10 | 90 | 2009 | “The second full-length from this noisy Bristol duo is more accessible than their first but sacrifices none of that record's visceral power.” |
| Uncut via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | 2009 | |
| Q via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | 2009 | |
| Mojo via Wikipedia | 4/5 | 80 | 2009 | |
| NME via Wikipediaby Louis Pattison | 8/10 | 80 | 2009 | “The way people toss around words like ‘experimental’ and ‘avant-garde’, you’d think they were important to still have any meaning. But trust NME, [a]Fuck Buttons[/a] aren’t avant-garde. Sure, their debut,…” |
| The Guardian via Wikipediaby Tim Jonze | 4/5 | 80 | 2009 | “Fuck Buttons long, trance-inducing instrumentals nod to techno, noise and even the current shoegaze revival, writes Tim Jonze” |
| The Telegraph via Wikipediaby Andrew Perry | 4/5 | 80 | 2009 | |
| AllMusic via Wikipediaby Heather Phares | 4/5 | 80 | ||
| Spin via Wikipediaby Jessica Suarez | 6/10 | 60 | 2009 |
Every Sunday: the week's new albums, scored by the critics. Plus our own reviews when we post them. Free, and one click to leave.
Tarot Sport in Fuck Buttons's catalog
More from Fuck Buttons
More Electronic from around 2009
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How the Breakdown works
Every outlet’s score is converted to 0–100 (2/5 is 40, 5.9/10 is 59, a B+ is 88) and averaged. Grades follow the B-Side scale: A is 90–100, B 80–89, C 70–79, D 60–69, F below 60. Approval is the share of critics who scored it 75 or higher; the Breakdown shows green at 75 and up, red below. Divisiveness asks a different question: not how many critics liked it, but how close their scores are to each other. Five critics who all give it 50 are Unanimous, even though none of them liked it. The labels run Unanimous, Broad agreement, Some debate, Divided, and Contentious. Replay rate comes from listeners, not critics: yes counts fully, a few tracks counts half, no counts zero. The gist quotes each outlet’s own summary of its review. Published is the date on the review itself, read from the outlet’s page, so you can see whether an album’s reputation came at release or years later. Scores marked est. come from reviews that publish no number. Scores marked via Wikipedia are archive ratings, mostly for older albums, taken from the “Professional ratings” box on the album’s Wikipedia page (published openly through Wikidata); each links to the original review when we can find it online, and to that Wikipedia entry when we can’t. When an outlet reviewed an album twice, years apart (often for a reissue), both scores count, each labeled with its year.
A-Side marks the critics’ top tier. An album earns it automatically, from its numbers alone: a Breakdown of 90 or higher, from at least 5 reviews, with at least 75% approval. Nobody hands it out and nobody can buy it; if new reviews pull an album below the line, it loses the badge.






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